Development battle continues

‘I notice they are not doing it anywhere else in Fremantle, they’re just sticking right up us,’ Riversea View resident John Rogers said.

Fremantle is currently considering increasing heights, set in 2009 by the State Administrative Tribunal, at former industrial sites in a development zone near the intersection of Stirling Highway and McCabe Street, next to homes zoned R12.5.

Cottesloe-based HLM Holdings, a consortium including developer Alan McGillivray, wants the five storeys now allowed behind the Matilda Bay Brewery to be increased to equal the nearby limits at the McCabe Street Taskers Joint Venture, where a six-storey development could rise to eight storeys.

Mr Rogers said Fremantle would get rates revenue from all the apartments but not pay for upkeep of Mosman Park facilities used by the new residents, whose balconies overlook homes for 500m, blocking wind, rain and sun.

‘With a $500 camera I can see faces on Taskers’ balconies from my home 300m away, and I sure don’t want them looking down into my pool with my grandchildren swimming,’ he said.

Mr McGillivray said the brewery development’s extra height conformed with WA Planning Commission policy for greater housing density in Perth. He said the proposed additional height would equal limits at Taskers and |residents have ‘all had the opportunity’ to study the proposals for two years.

Taskers JV’s Gary Dempsey said a five-storey building allowed on the site would be replaced with a 3500sq m garden and two storeys on the fourth stage on McCabe Street, preventing overshadowing.

Fremantle planning and development director Phil St John said the council was considering about 150 public submissions but a final recommendation had not yet been made.